Won't eat anything other than mealworms

Hello!

I'm new to these forums, though I've been reading the posts for quite a while since first getting my beardie. And I would really love some advice re:feeding mealworms!

My beardie is about eight months old, probably female, named Delilah (or Lila). Up until recently she's always eaten crickets and locusts, with mealworms offered as an occasional treat. Now, though, she refuses to eat anything other than mealies. At first I wasn't too concerned, since I know there are people whose beardies do fine on mealies, but it seems my Lila isn't one of them. She used to poop in her tank every day, no problem, but lately she's been having a hard time with it and will only poop in the bath. I'm convinced it's the mealworms that are blocking her up, and I would really like to swap her onto something else before she gets seriously impacted.

I've tried everything I can think of to get her to have something that isn't a mealworm! She ignores crickets/locusts unless I forcefeed her, something I'm very reluctant to resort to, but I'm certain she's underweight and I don't feel comfortable letting her go too long without eating something. I've also tried silk worms and dubia roaches, with no luck.

Husbandry
Temps are 90-100 in under the basking lamp (she'll avoid the heat if it's any hotter than that)
UVB is an Arcadia 12%. Substrate is some lovely green paper I found in a craft shop, along with some sandstone slabs.

I dust her insects once a day, and she is offered a salad which usually has some combination of rocket leaves/dandelion/butternut squash/carrot, sometimes I'll include some basil. Her salad is also dusted with calcium, and lately she's been ignoring that, too.

She gets checked up at the vet every few months, and he can't see anything physically wrong with her apart from being on the small side.

Thanks in advance for any help, it's hugely appreciated!


***edit**
Something I've taken to doing is blending her insects and salad together with some olive oil and water to make a kind of smoothie, then syringe/spoon feeding it to her, but I don't know if that's feasible as permanent solution.

I'm going to keep an eye on this topic as I have issues with getting my boy to eat greens! His original owners (although they meant well) feed him on cabbage, meal worms and crickets alone. I am having a heck of a time trying to get him to eat more varied greens. He is more than happy to eat super worms, horn worms or roaches but not any spring mix, dandelion greens, endive or radicchio I offer. I've heard of "starving" them where you only offer greens for them to eat but I feel bad when he looks at me like "Mom, where's my worms?" I've tried putting his worms in the salad too with mixed results. The horn worms are good for this though as they grab onto the salad so he gets a mouthful of salad with his worm snack. I wish you luck with your dragon!

Mealworms will cause impaction in beardies due to their hard exoskeletons. You may have to "starve" her to get her to stop eating them, but they are not a good staple. Try dubia roaches or phoenix worms.
You can order feeders online from here http://www.rainbowmealworms.net/ for cheap.
Here's the most reliable nutrition website for beardies that I've found. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Foxxy76, how old is your guy? Younger beardies don't need to eat as many greens. You can try dusting the greens in bee pollen, this gets my gals to eat! Or like you said you've tried, mixing worms with the greens also gets good results.

At 8 months I don't think the impaction risk is as high, but they aren't the healthiest feeder so I'd keep them to a treat. I'm surprised she didn't want the silk worms, those are usually a favorite. The black soldier fly larvae are also marketed as calci worms and repti worms - same thing different brand. Probably worth a try as they are a healthier wiggly worm option.

Thanks for the advice so far @Foxxy76, @CloudyCat, @CooperDragon!

Sadly, Hornworms are illegal in the UK otherwise I'd love to give them a try. I'm interested in trying phoenix worms/black soldier larvae, but I'm having trouble finding a UK-based site that sells them. If anyone knows a place, please do let me know!

https://www.reptiles.swelluk.com/swell-livefood-calci-worms-bulk-1000/

https://www.reptiles.swelluk.com/swell-livefood-calci-worms/

@ Cloudycat I adopted my little man from a co-workers friend who got him when he was "bigger." They couldn't give me an exact age but estimated age is 1-2 years old. The vet I used to work for said this was probably "about right." She also said he looked healthy and was in good flesh, lol, but he did need a more varied diet especially when it came to greens.

And I think you can order phoenix worms on amazon. I would look at the reviews and see what is said about the quality of the seller/worms before ordering. I'm pretty fortunate that my LPS carries horn worms and can order more if needed. You can look on amazon though and I think this site even has ads on feeder insects somewhere.

LOL i got my beardie for 2 weeks now he had some stomach problems much better now i bought him superworms to make sure he would eat as i can leave them in hes dish but now he wont touch the crickets lol i tried feeding him some crickets but he is not interested but he ate like10 superworms now hes been basking to burn all that off lol.i like superworms because he can eat them anytime he likes unlike crickets i have to supervise i have about 400 babie dubias when they get bit bigger i might try that but my 4 month old beardie likes them but he needs to eat crickets too also he doesnt like salad i got him some mustard greens with some sweet peppers i put hes superworms with hes salad but he wont touch it lol but at least hes eating.

My local petsmart carries superworms unfortunately my female at six months is still too small to eat them as they are bigger than the space between her eyes. Petsmart also carries waxworms but again she's still too small between the eyes to eat them yet.

so I'm stuck with occasional mealworms for protein at this time since my Home owners association for my condo advised me if there would be any bug breakouts due to any dubia roaches or other bugs I had shipped to me as feeders it would be my responsibility to pay all costs.

Shidohari, how big is your dragon ? I fed medium superworms to my dragons at 12", as long as you don't give them too many at once [ 3-4 at first ] they can handle them just fine.

AHBD":2rqnvyex said:

Shidohari, how big is your dragon ? I fed medium superworms to my dragons at 12", as long as you don't give them too many at once [ 3-4 at first ] they can handle them just fine.

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By eyeball I would think she's between 9-10 inches. but my petsmart only sells the large superworms...Unless i read the container wrong.

Oh, she is small for her age then. The supers would be too big unless they had the small/medium.

My bearded is going on 5 months old I got him from a local pet shop in Dallas,tx he ate some greens today slowly he's getting used to go check LLL reptile they got small super worms and black fly larva you can definitely make those 2 as a staple flukers sells them too but there out of stock right now also here in dfw are locals selling feeder dubias small/medium 2000 for 100 bucks I bought some my bearded seems to like them in going to scrap the crickets when they die or my bearded eats them lol

I found online a vendor that sells small and medium superworms however they say not to refrigerate them (like waxworms can't be) I don't think i'd use 100 small superworms fast enough before they'd start turning into beetles. Which is kind of a bummer i was going to try out 50-100 of the small ones.

Right don't refridgerate will kill them care sheet that I follow it says to keep worms between 70 to 80 f not cooler then 70 oatmeal or wheatbran as substrate fruits and vegetables and water crystals is what give them so far no worms have died also as far as I know super worms won't pupilate unless there isolated and without food I had my worms for a,week now